Which book\resource should i read?

I am an average computer user, rather one of the experienced users in my friend circle... And through these years I have learnt to use the computer pretty well "windows of course"... And I know pretty much about hardware; how it works and general troubleshooting...

Now what I am wishing to learn is the following about which I am totally noobish. I would like you guys to refer me resources/books which I should read for it..

1. Programming
I dont know even one bit of programming or any of the languages. no LOGO, BASIC, QBASIC, etc idea. I wanna learn it from the grasshood level.A resource which answers questions like the following:
Whats is programming?
What does it Do?
How is it done?
What is the role of hardware?
How to software and hardware interact at the basic level?
They say computer only understand "0"s and "1"s. How is the information we give processed in it then?
How is programming done by using words when the computer itself understands only "0 and "1"s?
How many kinds of programming languages are there?
Why are different languages needed?
What are the basic steps of programming?
Which is the most basic language that can be learnt and hence programs be created?
What is 16 bit, 32 bit, 64 bit (Why programs are dfifferent in this way?) ?
How are GAMES made?

2. Internet and Network
Where does the data stay in the internet?
How do we connect to the data there?
How can we download data at so high speeds when at the same time so many people may be accessing it hence increasing traffic on that web server?
What is IP address, gateway, subnet mask, etc? How are the assigned?
How do we know which IP is online?
How do we share data by knowing IP address of two computers?
How does FTP work?
What do we mean by HTTP?
What is TCP/IP protocol?
What is DHCP?
What are the basics of NETWORKING?

3. Web Designing
How is it done?
What is WEB 2.0?
How do we create our website?
How do we get space for creating the website?

4. Basic of Operating Systems
What are the different operating systems?
What makes them different?
How does an operating system work?
Whats a kernel? What does it do?
A little something about starting out with LINUXtoo...

Alright soooo many questions.. Sorry for that, but i thought this would be an ideal place to ask that..

I have 4 categories mentioned...
Could you guys help me out with One Book For Each Category?
Books are better than online tutorials but apart from mentioning the books, you guys can also give me some online materials.

Books are compulsory... Also please reccommend books from good publications that are READILY AVAILABLE...

Thanks you in advance... I really need it guys...

Regards
Bikalp Paudel

M

Try some .... for Dummies books, they aren't awefully good but can do for people who wouldn't like to be professionals in the field.

You want us to answer all the above questions, or refer you a book to learn those? Why dont you look them all up on wikipedia? Almost all topics you have mentioned are explained there.

Haven't they thought you programming in school? Many of those questions you ask are all covered in school!

Maybe he finished his schooling long back... And many schools, especially in rural areas, and some even in cities dont teach basic computer science to students. Even if they do, they are not in a position to answer their questions.

M

QwertyManiac said:
Haven't they thought you programming in school? Many of those questions you ask are all covered in school!

I didn't know any of it even after passing Junior College.

Same here. Till I started Engg.

Pathik - Eh, you're the same generation as me!

J

go to www.w3schools.com

Nah, nothing @ school, just finished 12th guys, am not that old

and i studied in dps, dharan.
Pathetic lab, a$$hole teachers. Never taught well, nothin more than logo, gwbasic, qbasic. as it was never evaluated in exams.
We were made to make excel files in 10th. Lol.
Anyway provide some viable solutions guys..
Books are the best way to learn, thats what i feel..

Qwerty, seriously. In Maharashtra, SSC/HSC board, we dont normally have any Programming course normally.

my advice.are you interested in mathematics ,solving puzzles reg mathematical?if NOT, shy away from programming

but if you have the courage to face,best of Luck

Praka, Programming doesnt need courage. Just interest.

oh?interest?many are interested(incl me!) ,but without a solid mathematical base ,you cant do pretty much anything

Pathik said:
Praka, Programming doesnt need courage. Just interest.

ateast true with me!

what if the subject got math-phobia?

@bikdel: I got a book called C programming for dummies 2nd edition by Dan Gookin .this book is what is the most friendly I saw.

Wikipedia man, it has everything you ask.... I just checked it.

praka123 said:
what if the subject got math-phobia?

@bikdel: I got a book called C programming for dummies 2nd edition by Dan Gookin .this book is what is the most friendly I saw.

well i aint gud in maths either. But don wana be a pro @ it. Precisely wat kinda math is required?
Am gud @ algebra n arithmetic

i m out of town ryt now. No pc access.

So need a book. Will look into wikipedia later. Ive been using it for solutions many times.

@praka123, does ur book have an intro to programming?

^YES!It is for introduction to programming(C) basically!I prefer this book.

remember to get the 2nd edition.

So u mean it tells us abt programming n then it introduces to C language? 2nd edition would be a revised 1st ed? Ryt?
Are these books expensive?
Anyway thnx.
And what abt the other 3 topics n books that il need? Any idea.
Sory for too many questions..

K

Books are expensive. especially the ...For Dummies series.
Just go to a decent bookstore and ask around for books on programming(i would suggest start with something easy like python or basic), networking and whatever your other categories are. Flip through the book to see if you can easily understand it. Simple as that.

A

bikdel said:
Nah, nothing @ school, just finished 12th guys, am not that old

and i studied in dps, dharan.
Pathetic lab, a$$hole teachers. Never taught well, nothin more than logo, gwbasic, qbasic. as it was never evaluated in exams.
We were made to make excel files in 10th. Lol.
Anyway provide some viable solutions guys..
Books are the best way to learn, thats what i feel..

what the heck? who framed such useless syllabus

M

azaad_shri75 said:
what the heck? who framed such useless syllabus

Ours was worse. Introduction to Computers in standard 5, logo in standard 6 and 7, introduction to windows in standard 8 and MS Office in Standard 9 and 10.

^Same. And even that wasnt complete

M

Pathik said:
^Same. And even that wasnt complete

And thankfully for me, I never understood anything

I did but I was disgusted that they wasted my 4 schooling years teaching me crap any half brained nitwit could learn in a day. So I used to shift to playing Wolf 3d and Dave instead of paying attention.

^^ thats what happend to me. The things taught were too easy even to arouse any curiosity amongst us.
Dave, wolf, lion king, bumpy, n some sega racing games came to rescue.
I never really felt that i had to atleast learn wat was taught. So dont know logo n basic. But thats damn easy n can b learnt in no time.
So what should i look for? Just some books frm nearby bookstore?

^^ And they are of no use. Dont bother with LOGO and BASIC. If you want to start programming, start from VB or C. For books, get Teach Yourself Visual Basic 6 in 24 hours by SAMS publishers (I have this book), or Yashwant Kanetkar's Let Us C (I dont know how this one is, just that my friends use it)

Try cprogramming.com

dheeraj_kumar said:
^^ And they are of no use. Dont bother with LOGO and BASIC. If you want to start programming, start from VB or C. For books, get Teach Yourself Visual Basic 6 in 24 hours by SAMS publishers (I have this book), or Yashwant Kanetkar's Let Us C (I dont know how this one is, just that my friends use it)

these book do have a general intro to "what is programming" i suppose. Wil look out for them.
@pathik. . will definitely go tn thd site once i get access to pc when i get back home.

Google, dude.

M

dheeraj_kumar said:
Yashwant Kanetkar's Let Us C (I dont know how this one is, just that my friends use it)

Most crappiest book, never ever suggest it to anyone.

^^ O_O okay, not even for beginners?

M

dheeraj_kumar said:
^^ O_O okay, not even for beginners?

Nope. I don't know any other book but I have seen KnR and LUC. After looking at KnR, I wouldn't ever again touch LUC.

F

I've used Yashwant Kanetkar and I personally prefer to stay away from his book.

Nope. I don't know any other book but I have seen KnR and LUC. After looking at KnR, I wouldn't ever again touch LUC.

Yeah, KnR is the one stop reference for C. Nothing can ever beat that.

Whats knr?

M

bikdel said:
Whats knr?

*cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/cbook/

A

FilledVoid said:
I've used Yashwant Kanetkar and I personally prefer to stay away from his book.

+1, right said, one of the most useless books on C.

if knr is felt hard to follow by beginners one can go with this : Apress.Beginning.C.From.Novice.to.Professional.

Or Learn C in 21 days or 24 hours. I havent read the book personally but the SAMS series are always easy to follow, I have 4-5 books of theirs, including perl, javascript, visual basic and something else(?) and they are very helpful to beginners

M

bikdel said:
Whats knr?

You can skip KnR since you're totally clueless about programming. There are other books to look into.

Alryt, im goin for a lookout today. Lets C. Lolz

A

bikdel said:
Alryt, im goin for a lookout today. Lets C. Lolz

if you follow that you will learn nothing

Lolz. I meant that literally, not the boot "let us C".

A

ok ok I got it.

F

Hi Friends

I have recently joined the forum and came across your thread.
Well, as per as the books are considered a single book will not make you a master. If you want to be an expert a number of books and online materials will be required.
Here are my suggestions.
If you are beginner to the world of programming then consider any of the following book.
C Primer Plus, By Stephen Prata
Beginning C From Novice to Professional by Ivor Horton
C The complete Reference by Herbert Schildt
After gaining some idea about c, go for the following books
The C Programming Language by Brian W. Kernighan, Dennis M. Ritchie
Expert C Programming by Peter Van Der Linden
C Unleashed by Heathfield, Kirby, et al

I hope you will find this information useful. You can ask me if you want to know more about programming.But always consider buying the book that best suits you.
Good Luck.
Enjoy coding in C.

^^ thank you very much; and by the way welcome to the forum!

I had referred Kanetkar (sadly) and Sams Teach yourself C in 21 days.

Ivor Horton is good, but Herbert Schildt is more of a reference than a guide. I wouldnt recommend it for beginners.

Hi "Bikdel"................r u doin engg??
If your stream is any of these IT,CSC or ECE u'll get ur answers from the syllabi......

If u r not doing Engg.........it would a bit tough to understand all this lingo......
'#########################
For Programming I would suggest you these:
C: "A Book On C" by Kelly, Pohol
Let us C by Yasvant Kanetkar is good but it would be more easy to understand if you KNOW C. Another better book on C would be "The Indispensable Guide to C" by Paul,Devis. This is the best of the lot if you want to be a geek in C

.
Another Programming language, I would say Java. For this "Complete reference" by Herbert Schield(pardon me if I mispelt) is best. Read every line, word by word from page 1 to chapter 10(or till Threads, then applets and others). If you do every programs in this book you'll be best in Java.

Ahhhh....Games..d same old question...........it consists OpenGl programming, DirectX programming..........better leave it for later part of ur life......means when you r pretty much confident in programming.
'#########################
Networking:-
I think these two books will be enough.........
Data Communications and Networking By Behrouz A. Forouzan, Sophia Chung Fegan

And

TCP/IP protocol suite: Protocol Suite By Behrouz A. Forouzan, Sophia Chung Fegan

These are not enjoyable to read but informative( lots and lots of! :))

'#########################
Web Designing:
Before going in designing you need to know diff. Web technologies, for this follw this book.
Web Technologies: Tcp/ip to Internet Application Architectures by Achyut S Godbole, Atul Kahate (I love this book)

Web designing: for page designing go to w3schools.com is best.
Serverside language would be JSP,PHP or ASP.......

'####################
OS: theres a book by Tennenbaum........search by his name....you'll get info...

@rhitwick
thank you, actually i am a hobbyist only. And il consider the choices. I just got a book"begginers guide to programming" publishe by McGraw Hill. Its nice and illustrative. Good enough. After i finish with this one, ill read one abt networking. Will look at the choices provided. Thank you.